Doug,
>How do you see the UDMA developing vrs Ultra SCSI. Many claim the
>gap will narrow will time. If the gap narrows, will ADPT be facing a
>struggle for survival since UDMA is much cheaper.
There are several questions in there and I don't have all the answers, but....
UDMA has narrowed the gap between it and Ultra2SCSI as much as it is going to. I do not see that much else can be done. By the way, when looking at disk transfer rates, always check both the external and the internal rate. The internal rate tells you how well the disk itself is capable of performing and the external rate lets you gauge the maximum capability of the interface. UDMA is not capable of supporting a lot of disks which is what you need to boost througput for a lot of servers. Moreover, UDMA inherently needs more CPU power for the disk transfers and that is very bad in a server.
Anyway, I think we have a general concensus that there will not be a lot of SCSI installation on the home machines. But there are still the servers and there are a lot of those out there. They hide in the back rooms, but without them, nothing would work. Those servers will always need leading edge performance. Right now, that is Ultra2SCSI and soon it will likely be fiber channel.
And don't forget 1394. We really do not know how that one will play out yet. Adaptec may not get that big a share of that market. Then again, they may. And the potential market is *huge*.
Cheers, Torben |
